Red bean paste

Red bean paste

　　In the Compendium of Materia Medica, red beans are officially called "chi xiao dou" (small red beans), a food ingredient that is both edible and medicinal. Red beans have high medicinal value and excellent health benefits. Medicinally, they can clear heat and toxins, strengthen the spleen and benefit the stomach, promote urination and reduce swelling, regulate qi and relieve irritability. They can treat conditions such as difficulty in urination, edema due to spleen deficiency, and athlete’s foot. Since ancient times, they have drawn attention, and Li Shizhen referred to red beans as the "grain of the heart." Red beans can also aid the small intestine, promote urination, reduce swelling and discharge pus, clear heat and toxins, treat diarrhea and athlete’s foot, quench thirst and relieve alcohol intoxication, promote lactation, and aid in childbirth. In traditional Chinese medicine, red beans help improve edema caused by kidney, heart, and athlete’s foot conditions, mainly due to the effects of the saponin compounds they contain. In addition to promoting urination and preventing constipation, they also have detoxifying and emetic effects.

　　Nutritional Value

　　Bean paste is one of the main fillings used in many delicious foods, such as mooncakes, sweet dumplings, zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), and steamed buns. The production process of bean paste is complex, but you can also choose commercially available bean paste products and flavor them with osmanthus, rose, mint, raisins, etc., to create different varieties of bean paste fillings.

　　1. Red beans contain a relatively high amount of saponins, which can stimulate the intestines, giving them good diuretic properties. They can help relieve alcohol intoxication and detoxify, and are beneficial for heart disease, kidney disease, and edema.

　　2. Red beans are rich in dietary fiber, which helps moisten the intestines and promote bowel movements, lower blood pressure, reduce blood lipids, regulate blood sugar, detoxify, fight cancer, prevent stones, and support fitness and weight loss. 3. Red beans are a food rich in folic acid; eating more red beans can promote lactation in mothers and nursing women.

　　Red bean paste – Therapeutic effects: sweet-sour, neutral, non-toxic; associated meridians: heart, small intestine, kidney, bladder. It clears heat toxins, disperses stagnant blood, relieves bloating, promotes urination, and aids lactation. It is used to treat abscesses with pus, abdominal bloating, difficulty in urination, edema and athlete’s foot, irritability, thirst, alcohol-related disorders, dysentery, jaundice, intestinal hemorrhoids with bleeding, and blocked lactation. Used externally, it treats heat toxin-induced abscesses, hematomas, and sprains.

　　Suitable Groups

　　Those who experience frequent urination should eat less.

　　Beneficial for those with insomnia, diarrhea, or spleen-kidney deficiency.

　　Avoid if you have dry stools or abdominal bloating.

　　Suitable for those who are physically weak, have lung issues, or are going through menopause.

　　Avoid if you have wind-cold cough or spleen deficiency with loose stools.

　　Food Incompatibilities

　　1. Cooking carp with red beans enhances their diuretic and swelling-reducing effects, making it very effective for treating nephritis-related edema. However, precisely because of their strong diuretic function, they should not be consumed by healthy individuals.

　　2. Eating red beans with sheep liver or sheep stomach may cause poisoning.